*Title for dramatic effect/humor
Generally, I've been a huge fan of setting lots of goals, constantly tracking them, and re-assessing my progress. Since I've started my own business, I've 100% became a work-a-holic (to a very unhealthy extreme at times). For a few years my answer to everything was simply "work more". To the point of spending many days working from the moment I woke up until bed time- and even responding to emails if I woke up in the night and couldn't sleep. After all, no one else but me was going to make this work- or was going to provide me with a steady income.
Then came 2020.
The year that showed us what it would be like to lose control of almost everything. The year where things we were always able to take for granted were not even on the table, and when plans (yours and mine) were being cancelled left and right.
Many weeks for me were spent working my butt off and losing money while doing it. But we all have had our challenges, and I'm not here to simply vent to you.
At some point in the Fall, I had a mindset shift (just in time for my annual goal setting efforts). I realized that if I'm in danger of regretting anything in this lifetime it's that I don't pay enough attention to my personal life and self care, not that I don't work hard enough!
Now don't get me wrong, I still have plans to run a better and more profitable business year over year and I also have in place a detailed itinerary of how to get there, but guess what? That's not the most important thing to me right now.
I am happy to say that I am putting myself, my health, my family, my loved ones, my hobbies first- and even exploration for personal growth. Because while there is still much instability in many industries (and we can't control it), things like learning a new skill (knitting) or getting myself educated on new topics, is something I can focus on and feel good about- and no covid restriction can take that progress away!
Lastly- one thing that has been super helpful in the past couple of years is something I've learned from my business coach. I will also share my covid compliant adaptation.
She taught me to create a vision for what I want my life to look like in 5 years. THEN make plans for the current year. This advice was life changing for me because it made me realize for one example that if I expect to buy a home in 3-4 years, I need to be setting aside a certain amount right now. And when I forego impulse purchases or buy just a handful of new clothing items per season, I can picture the reward waiting for me down the road.
Currently, I do have my 2021 plans all figured out. Because of the waiting game that we're all in right now, I've decided to tackle goals by quarter throughout the year. In the past I would have set out my plans for each month of the year at this point. Then last year, those plans had to be constantly changed every month as soon as we hit march.
As we speak, my plans are laid out for the next 3 months based upon what I know now and we'll hope that things only get better from there forward.
I hope you found this helpful. Happy New Year!